Fragments That Remain
by MollyAshbane
Summary: The Director always had his experiments, he just never accounted for the possibility of this one ruining his precious project. Based on the original story created by MissMoney101. Characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions and Escopeta was created by MissMoney101.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Somewhere in the Void

Narrator

A suffocating steam had spread across the room, it covered every object and surface that laid within it. I was drawn to this room by the sound of soft sobs, but there were none now. Her body sat, seeming lifeless, in the corner of the shower. There were no more sobs. I watched her eyes for any sign of life, but they just remained open and empty of anything. She began to rock back and forth very subtly. I had sighed with relief, knowing that she was still there; or at the very least, she was still alive.

She was not entirely there, I have no idea if she will ever be entirely present. She stared somewhere in the void, she had become a blank slate, she had been broken, she was beyond repair. There were no more tears, there were no more sobs.

"Es," the door flung open and a man rushed to her side. She appeared to be lethargic in the way she reacted to his entrance. He reached for her, but groaned once the hot water met his skin. He shut it off quickly and pulled a towel down over her. She looked up at him with an unchanging expression. "Why was the water so hot?" he squatted next to her and held her elbow in his hand. Her stare had returned to that void and he shook her until her gaze returned to his.

"You're okay, it's over. You're back here with us, we're going to take care of it," he tried to assure her but she just fell back to that void. I understand now, at least in that void, there were no more sobs, no more tears, no more suffering, no more rape. There was nothing and something about that was so appealing to her.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

You Don't Belong Here

Illinois

 _You don't belong here._ I look at the young, beautiful girl resting on the bed next to me. _How did you end up here, kid?_ I sigh and lean back in my chair. I look down at her jet black hair that has soft curls running all the way down to her waist, her small, heart shaped chin, her lush, berry colored lips, her button nose, the beauty mark beneath her left eye, and her long eyelashes. She's absolutely gorgeous, she couldn't be older than 16, Project Freelancer is not the place for her. I hope they send her home whenever she recovers.

A soft groan escapes her lips and she eyes flutter open. "Morning," I take a swig of my beer and she sits up to look at me. Her dark emerald eyes sting me, I've seen them before.

"Where am I?" she asks with her soft, delicate voice.

"Welcome to Project Freelancer, hope you don't stay long," my jaw clenches as the door opens, slowly letting light flood the room. "Sir," I stand up and salute the Director while he walks into the room with the Counselor on his heels.

"At ease Illinois," he walks up to the foot of her bed without his attention ever wavering from her.

"Hello, how are you feeling?" the Counselor speaks up.

"Where am I?" she repeats her question, her voice a lot firmer than it was previously. The Counselor looks up at the Director and in a way, it seems like he's asking for permission to answer her question.

"Answer whatever questions she may have Counselor," the Director's eyes narrow, he wants to test her.

"Yes sir," the Counselor returns his attention to the girl. "We are in a secure facility that is located on Earth," he answers shortly.

"Who are you people?" his answer makes her more on edge.

"We are part of a military project -" the Counselor once again looks up at the Director; but this time, the Director just nods, "- Project Freelancer. I am the Counselor, this man is the Director and the armored man by your bedside is Agent Illinois," he explains. "Do you have any other questions?" the Counselor breaks the brief silence in the room.

She takes a deep breath and worry washes over her face, "Are they okay?" her voice softens again.

"Define they," the Director folds his hands in front of his body.

"The other kids," she answers quickly, like she was trying to just skip over it.

"We did not find any other people," the Counselor answers.

"Counselor, I have other matters to attend to, I trust that you can handle this on your own," the Director walks out and leaves us.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" he asks the girl and her eyebrow furrows.

"I woke up and it was really hot, I couldn't breathe, I was suffocating," she shakes her head with a shrug.

"Your house was on fire, you were lucky that our agents were nearby and intervened before you lost your life," he lies through his damn teeth, I scoff and they both look at me. "May I ask what your name is?" he asks.

"It's Escopeta," she answers.

"Well, Escopeta, how would you like a job?" the Counselor smirks and her eyebrows furrow again.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Late Night Legends

Illinois

You see, the good thing about being the demolition "expert", is that it doesn't really exist. I mean you don't have to be an expert to blow a bunch of crap up, hell, you can show up to work drunk off your ass, and I normally do. That's pretty much the one thing I like about this place, the bar is always stocked. Everyone here is so melodramatic and dysfunctional that the meds don't even work anymore, booze is all that's left for some of us.

Every night, I do the same thing, I sit in the common area for hours, staring at the bottom of a glass until I get the energy to fill it up again. Right now, I'm at that point in the night where I have no idea what glass I'm on and I'm just letting my thoughts ramble away in my head. The Counselor says it's good that I'm aware of what my brain is actually doing, does it even really matter?

"It was Illinois, right?" my nightly routine shatters and I look up at the short girl in the doorway.

"Unfortunately," I push myself off of the couch and walk over to the bar for another drink.

"You don't like it here?" she sits down on the couch with her knees against her chest.

"Eh, the booze isn't too bad," I shrug, taking a swig of my drink and sitting a cushion away from her feet. "I know that isn't the answer you were looking for," I set down my drink and try to be serious. "You don't belong here kid, we aren't exactly the good guys," I look into her eyes and she looks down to her tiny feet. "What's wrong?" I ask.

"Could I be honest with you?" she asks in almost a whisper.

"Go for it," I shrug.

"I am - or at least was a mercenary," she says and I laugh with a snort.

"You're like 12," I joke.

"17, actually," she rubs the back of her neck. "Look, during the interview, the Counselor was super cryptic. He said something about me having a skill set that the Project could use, there's no way he could know about me being a mercenary, right?" she even sounds like she's trying to convince herself at this point.

"Es, I'm gonna let you know how things work here. The Director and the Counselor have their own agenda, if you peaked their interest, they know everything about you already. Considering that you're here and they want to give you a job, I'd say they know, darling," I tell her and she rubs her forehead. "You gotta run kid, run while you still can," I pull a folded up picture out of my pocket and hand it to her.

"Who are they?" she asks looking over the picture.

"Those were my old buddies, the Freelancers before you," I explain briefly. "You were a mercenary, so can I make deal with you?" I ask her and she looks at me with a furrowed eyebrow. "I'm gonna take care of you here, be your momma bird, but if anything happens to me, could you take care of them? Just if they show up on the Project's radar?" I propose and she takes one more look at the picture.

"Look, I don't need you to take care of me," she shakes her head. "But I will look out for them," her eyes are very serious.

"Why?" I question her motives.

"Because you saved my life," she answers.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Better Than North Part One

Illinois' Point of View

 _At some point last night, she fell asleep. I was probably rambling on about the good old days, when York and I would get drunk off of our asses, prank someone, then he would cry about Carolina and I would fall into whatever existential crisis was problematic that day. I guess I'm writing this because I don't want to forget the way she looked, the way her long eyelashes laid on her blush colored cheeks._

 _Her legs were on mine and her head was on the arm of the couch. I let her rest there for a while before I finished my drink, but after that, I carried her to her room, tucked her into bed and here I am writing in my journal. It's been a while since I've had something that I didn't want to forget, in a way, I'm glad she's here. We also made a deal before she fell asleep, I'm just glad that York will be taken care of. Maybe we'll even be able to have a drink again._

I finish my journal entry right as Fillis sounds over the P.A. system, "Good morning Agents!" she chirps. "Today is Wednesday, March 6th, the first training session of the day is with our Agents: Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Nevada! Have a good day everyone!" she sounds so cheerful.

I sigh while I push myself out of my seat and I change into a different pair of grey sweatpants and a black Project Freelancer shirt. As soon as I walk out of my door, I look to my right and see Es walking down the hall. "Good morning," she raises her hand to her mouth as she yawns. "Did I fall asleep last night?" she asks.

"Yeah, didn't know I was that boring," I laugh and she gets flustered.

"I - you … I was just tired!" she exclaims.

"Riiiight," we stand in line together. "So which state are you?" I realize I never asked for her new name.

"California," she answers.

"Ah, so this is the beautiful California!" Hawaii approaches from behind us and kisses her hand. She pulls her hand back and makes a face like she's weirded out. "I'm Hawaii, let me know if you ever need anything, I can take care of you in a lot of ways," he winks at her.

"Um, no," Es turns around and I choke on my laughter. We grab our trays quickly after that and we sit down together at a table.

"Agents California, Washington and Illinois, you are next for training. You should expect a training time of 5:45!" Fillis informs us.

"That's 15 minutes from now," I start shovelling the food into my mouth.

"So what should I be expecting?" she eats in a very clean and polite manner.

"Eh he's probably just going to examine your skills and stuff," I shrug.

"Who is, Washington?" she asks.

"Did they say Washington too?" I drop my fork and look at her.

"Yeah, why?" she looks concerned at my reaction.

"We're fucked," I rest my forehead on the table, but she just chuckles as she delicately eats a pear cube. "Something funny about my gaping ass hole?" I look up at her and she nearly spits out her water.

"You're seriously scared of this guy?" she becomes serious when she realizes that I'm not laughing.

"He's one of the original freelancers, he was even on the upper leaderboard," I run my hand through my hair while I explain to her.

"We can handle him," she nods her head in complete confidence.

"When we end up in the infirmary, I want a hundred bucks," I bet.

"Oh, you're so on," she laughs.

"California?" Wash approaches our table. "I'm Wash, we are going to be training together this morning, I thought it would be polite if I showed you to the locker room and training floor," he shakes her hand.

Her eyes narrow when she looks at him, "I suppose we could all walk together, is that okay, Illinois?" she looks over at me.

"The more, the merrier, maybe he'll get to know us on the walk and won't kill us," I mutter the last part. Es and I grab our trays before we walk out of the two large glass doors. We walk through the halls in an awkward silence until we enter the locker room.

"So this is the locker room, the lockers are mostly assorted by who you're going to be teaming up with. Your's is between mine and Illinois', your armor will be through that door in the armory, we'll wait for you in here," he sits on the bench.

"Thanks," Es walks into the armory and I start pulling my armor on.

"Is that the new girl?" I hear Colorado whisper.

"Yeah, California. She looks young," Kansas looks towards the armory with sorrow in her eyes.

"I can't believe he recruited her, she doesn't deserve this kind of a life," Colorado sighs with a quick shake of her head.

"Did any of us?" Kansas looks at the ground solemnly.

"Look, Wash, I wanna look out for her while she's here," I look up at Wash but I cannot see the way he reacts since he always wears his armor. "I guess what I'm trying to say - or more ask is uh, could you take it easy? At least on her," I pull my helmet off of the top shelf of my locker.

"Don't worry, we're not going to do anything too crazy today, just some observational stuff," he looks towards the armory as Es comes out in her new armor. She has gray Mark VI armor with dark emerald highlights that match her eyes.

"Jesus you guys are like fucking twins," Nevada walks through the locker room and notices their similar armor.

"Alright, let's get started," Wash claps his hands together and holds the training room door open for us. "Good morning Fillis, we are ready for the first test," Wash walks out to the center of the floor but Es and I stay back for a moment.

"Good morning and welcome to our newest agent, California!" Fillis chirps happily. "The Director and Counselor will be observing from the observation center, no pressure though," Fillis informs us and Es shrugs like she doesn't care. "The first three rounds will test your accuracy, you can choose whatever weapons you want, but you must get through all of them. You can find your weapons on the tables located around the floor and the targets will be displayed once you are ready, good luck Agents," Fillis explains.

"Thank you Fillis," Wash walks over to a table and we meet him there. "So California, which weapon do you want to try first?" he asks while Es glances over all of them.

She smiles once she notices something. Then she puts her helmet on and locks it into place, "Sniper Rifle," she decides.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Better Than North Part Two

Illinois' Point of View

"Sniper Rifle," she decides.

"God damn it," I mutter under my breath.

"Who would like to go first?" Fillis asks. We all exchange glances but no one steps up.

"I'll go," Es grabs the sniper rifle with a sigh.

"Lovely, California your goal is to hit all of the targets in the least amount of time, good luck," Fillis says briefly. She takes a deep breath before raising the rifle to her helmet. "Timer beginning in three, two, one, begin," Fillis gives her a countdown and once she says begin, Es squeezes the trigger. The targets change color from green to blue when they are hit and she finishes insanely quickly.

"Impressive, California hit all of the targets perfectly in the center, in record time," the Counselor sounds stunned.

"Two seconds better than North," the Director says with amusement.

"Try to beat that, boys," Fillis laughs.

"Kind of regret not going first now," I sigh to Es after she passes the rifle off to Wash.

"Not everyone is a sniper," she tries to comfort me. I look down at the ground and notice a gun on her thigh.

"You already got a magnum?" I question, she should have gotten her weapons after the session.

"Yeah, the guy in the armory said that the Director wanted me to bring it in," she shrugs.

"Why did they give you one that's all scratched up?" I strain my eyes trying to look at the shapes scratched into the side.

"Those aren't scratches," she grabs the magnum and shows it to me. "This was all that was left with me at the orphanage," she explains and I trace my fingers over the shapes. "Never really knew what they were," she shrugs.

"Three, two, one, begin," Fillis counts down for Wash - wait Washington. That's what this carving is, Washington and Texas. _I fucking knew it, I thought her name was just a coincidence but it's - it's her._

"Illinois," Es shakes me back to real life and I quickly take the rifle from Wash. "You got this," she pats my shoulder.

"Washington, you hit two targets in the center and you had a time of roughly nine seconds, that is seven seconds slower than California," Fillis says smuggly.

"Thanks Fillis," Wash says insincerely.

"Okay Illinois, ready?" Fillis ignores him.

"No choice," I roll my eyes.

"Unfortunately no," Fillis says bluntly but I just raise the rifle to my helmet. "Three, two, one, begin," Fillis counts down. I move slowly and try to aim as best as I can, I finish and push the rifle down on the table.

"Illinois you hit one target in the center and had a time of 12 seconds," Fillis informs us.

"This is bullshit," I cross my arms. The next two rounds go in a similar fashion, Wash chooses a magnum and I choose an assault rifle. Of course Es does the best in both of the rounds and Wash definitely doesn't do the worst, so that just leaves me all the way at the bottom.

"Now we are going to move on to hand to hand combat. Washington, since you are the ranking agent here, it will be you against California and Illinois, good luck agents," Fillis tells us and the tables sink back into the floor. Wash walks across the floor from us and Fillis counts down once again, "Three, two one, begin."

We rotate for a moment before Es waves her fingers like she wants me to follow her closely. She charges Wash and I reluctantly stay on her heels. At the last moment, she flips behind me and I take the opportunity to punch him directly in his helmet.

He recovers from the blow quickly and throws a few punches at me, I swipe two of them away before he is able to hit my helmet. While I stumble back, he jumps to kick me in the helmet, but Es shoves me out of the way, and she catches his foot before it hits her head.

"Don't do it," Wash pleads, but it's too late, and he falls to the floor after she punches him in the balls.

"So, did we win?" I look at Es but she shrugs.

"Yeah I'd say he's down Fillis," she kneels down next to Wash, who is rolling around clutching his balls.

"She passes, I'm done," Wash groans breathlessly.

"Congratulations California and Illinois," Fillis says.

"Let that conclude today's session, exquisite job California," the Director commends her. Es and I help Wash up and walk him to the bench in front of our lockers.

"Are you okay?" Es asks him.

"Yeah, Yeah I'm alright," he grabs an ice pack, and holds it over his groin.

"I'm sorry," she puts her helmet in her locker.

"It's okay, you did what you had to," he leans back on his locker. "I've only ever had a grappling hook stuck to my balls, but this was a lot worse than that," he groans.

"A grappling hook?" Es raises her eyebrow.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Great Mental Health Coverage

Escopeta's Point of View

"Did Illinois tell you that he would be running late?" the Counselor clears his throat after we wait for five minutes.

"No," I answer shortly. The room has a single window behind the Counselor's desk that allows a small amount of light in. In front of his desk, he has an armchair and a sofa with a few pillows scattered on them. Despite that, the room is pretty bare with the exception of a few packed bookshelves.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Illinois slips in quickly and plops himself down on the couch next to me.

"It's fine," the Counselor clicks his pen and prepares to write information down. "I like to start these sessions off by sharing information about what may affect you in the field," he pulls out two files.

Illinois and I share a confused glance, "Isn't our information supposed to be … private?" he asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I am not a doctor and I am not allowed to jeopardize a mission over patient confidentiality," the Counselor explains. "So Illinois, the last interview I did on you showed that you have a problem with addiction, specifically addiction to alcohol, that developed out of depression," he shuts the profile on Illinois and opens mine.

"Any medication I can take for the alcoholism Doc? Maybe Xanax?" Illinois jokes but the Counselor seems to ignore him.

"California, your introduction interview showed several issues that could affect -" the Counselor begins in a concerned tone.

"Counselor, with all due respect, I doubt that anything will affect me in the field. There's no time for emotion in the field," I pinch the skin on my left forearm with my right hand.

"Many people have a hard time "handling" mental illness, California, especially 17 year olds that are barely learning about their underlying issues," he speaks smoothly. "As I was saying, your introduction interview showed that you have major depressive disorder severe and severe anxiety," he shuts the file and returns both files to the cabinet in his desk.

"That's not right, she seems like a happy kid," Illinois laughs and looks over at me.

"She is very functional despite her illnesses, you would never know that she was severely depressed and anxious," the Counselor tells us. "We can better combat these issues by finding their source, Illinois, when did you turn to drinking?" the Counselor leans back in his chair and places the pad of paper in his lap.

"I guess it was when my friend died back in high school," he shrugs.

"So you turned to alcohol as a way of coping?" the Counselor asks while he scribbles something down.

"Sure," Illinois uses a sarcastic tone.

"How is that working out for you?" the Counselor looks up at Illinois, and Illinois runs out of smart responses. "California, what do you think Illinois should do instead of drinking?" he taps his pen a few times.

"Um - Is it really my place to say?" I scratch my arm and they both just stare at me. "Okay, I guess that he could talk to me," I just try to throw something out there.

"You two are partners, you should be able to rely on each other. It has been two weeks now since your first training session, how has your relationship developed?" the Counselor jots down a few things.

"She's family," Illinois answers quickly in a serious tone. "She's like a sister to me," he develops his answer further.

"I agree," I nod.

"Interesting,"the Counselor rests the tip of his pen on his lip. "And California, where do you think your depression or anxiety comes from?" the Counselor asks.

"Well I -" I look to Illinois for help but he just nods in an encouraging way. "When I was younger," I take a deep breath and shut my eyes, "I was raped," I stare at the ground as my whole body trembles. "A man adopted me," I continue after they refuse to say anything, "- he was supposed to take care of me but he didn't."

"Fuck," Illinois rubs his face with his hands and it muffles him.

"As far as my anxiety, we all know about my line of work, I didn't exactly work with the most friendly people," I feel the sweat pool on my hands.

"Well, I believe that this is a good place to end the session. We will continue next week at the same time. For the time being, I would like you both to understand each other and you can start by conversing more about your past issues," the Counselor shuts his notepad and sits up in his chair.

Illinois gets to the door before me and holds it open for me. I walk out with my head down and continue down the hall. To my surprise, he catches my hand and pulls me into a hug. He has one arm wrapped around my shoulders and a hand holding my head against his chest. It takes me a moment to relax, but I finally shut my eyes and put my arms around him as well. "I'm sorry," he says softly, "I'm so sorry," he repeats himself.


	7. Journal Entry (Illinois)

Journal Entry One

Agent Illinois

 _Before I write anything, I just want to clearly state that this is not a diary. This is a journal and I am going to write everything that I do not want to forget in the following entries. So to anyone that may be reading this, this is not a fucking diary, okay?! Also, get the fuck out!_

 _This all started when Wash received the Epsilon A.I. a few weeks ago. Something happened during the procedure, everyone says that the A.I. was unstable and sort of offed himself, but I think something else happened. I think that the Director caused the A.I. detonation because he doesn't like Wash, either way, the Director knew exactly what was going to happen. Whatever the Director did, it made Wash remember things differently, he thinks that Tex was a robot, but more importantly, he forgot all about_ _ **her**_ _._

 _After Wash got out of recovery, the best agents went rogue. The Director said that Tex attacked Wyoming for his A.I., but that wasn't true. It was Maine, or whatever Sigma had made him, the Meta I guess. One by one, they started turning against Tex. Carolina was always against her but South, North, even Wyoming started remembering her differently. I don't know how he did it, but I know we're next._

 _Anyways, Tex and York raided The Mother of Invention, crashed the bitch into a snowbank. The Director and Counselor salvaged what Agents and equipment they could, and they brought us here, to some training facility. I don't want to forget, everything that we went through, everything that he did to her, he can't get away with it._

 _Her name was Escopeta. She was their daughter. She had dark emerald eyes that sparkled in such an innocent way, she had this fuzzy jet black hair, long black eyelashes, a dimple on her left cheek and a beauty mark under her left eye. Hopefully she takes after her dad more, I don't think anyone needs another Tex running around._

 _Also, if she's totally hot one day, I owe York 100$._


End file.
